Setup for OOTP

[lupinlore]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at yahoogroups.com, "cubfanbudwoman" 
<susiequsie23 at s...> wrote:
>
<SNIP>
> 
> SSSusan:
> Right.  This is what I don't want to see.  I mean, I *do* think it 
> would be "correct" to see a lot of Angry!Harry and Frustrated!Harry, 
> but I want us the audience to be clued in to DD's true feelings and 
> motivations so that we don't have to feel as Harry does, if that 
> makes sense.
> 

This brings up a very good point.  You want your audience to stay in 
the seats and pay attention.  Thus, when the movie characters are 
joyful, the audience should be joyful.  When the characters are 
fearful, the audience should be fearful.  But when the characters are 
bored, frustrated, and in pain you DON'T want your audience to be 
bored, frustrated, and in pain.

That brings up a very big challenge, which many reviewers point out 
was exemplified by the recent movie "Jarhead."  Jarhead is a movie 
about a Marine Sniper in the Gulf War.  As the Marine Snipers did 
essentially nothing in the Gulf War, it is a movie where the 
characters are bored, frustrated, annoyed, and weary through almost 
the entire thing.  Now, I think the movie did an excellent job of 
capturing the essence of what this unit of Marines went through, and I 
liked it because I have personal ties with the subject, but I 
sympathize with other viewers who say, "Yeah, it did a great job of 
making me feel like the Snipers did, but who wants to feel that way?"  
In other words, "Jarhead" had the problem of how to tell a story about 
a bored, frustrated, angry young man without making its audience 
bored, angry, and frustrated.  The fact that "Jarhead," despite a fine 
cast, a big budget,  a tie in with a non-fiction bestseller, and very 
good screenwriting, could not pull this off with a lot of viewers does 
not speak well for the challenge of adapting OOTP successfully.


Lupinlore